Noam sent in a link to a website with a post featuring “beautiful” Chinese women who have been executed. These women are apparently important not because of their sacrifice, or because of what they say about Chinese politics, but because they’re beautiful. Non-beautiful women who have been executed apparently draw no interest.

Noam’s submission gave me a fantastic excuse to post a video of our very own Gwen Sharp giving a 4-1/2 minute lecture about a similar phenomenon, the Missing White Woman Syndrome (originally posted at the NSC School of Liberal Arts and Sciences; transcript after the jump).

She covers quite a bit of ground. After introducing the concept, she discusses data on the disproportionate coverage of crimes against white women, and how this shapes perceptions of risk. In fact, white women are among the least likely type of person to be victimized. This graph, coincidentally sent in by Grace S., doesn’t break down the data by gender, but it shows a clear pattern by race.

The constant attention to white women’s vulnerability, even though it’s disproportionate, makes it seem as if they are especially likely to be a victim of violent crime. The risk that women of color will be victimized, then, is underestimated and not taken as seriously as it should be. Meanwhile, white women may confine themselves to safer-seeming leisure activities and occupational pursuits.

These patterns affirm the role of racism in news making — with violence against women of color apparently less newsworthy — and also shows that white women, though valorized, may self-curtail their lives out of fear that they are, accordingly, the most likely target of violence.

Lundman, R.J. (2003). The newsworthiness and selection bias in news about murder: comparative and relative effects of novelty and race and gender typifications on newspaper coverage of homicide. Sociological Forum, 18(3), 357-386.

Transcript after the jump:

Recently, National Public Radio ran a story about coverage of what they call “women-in-peril” stories—that is, stories that focus on crimes against young white women, particularly those involving abduction. Jaycee Dugard and Elizabeth Smart, both kidnapped, sexually assaulted, and held captive for long periods, were the focus of intense media attention. ABC News appears to be particularly emphasizing this type of coverage; they scored an exclusive interview with Dugard and have hired Smart as a contributor; her first appearance included a discussion of Dugard’s case.

Of course, no one would deny that both Dugard and Smart underwent horrifying ordeals, and it’s not surprising that their stories drew the public’s attention. However, the media frenzy over these cases reflects a focus that has gotten a name among media critics: Missing White Woman Syndrome. That is, media coverage tends to be higher when victims are young, White, conventionally-attractive women. Research indicates that crimes with white female victims do indeed receive disproportionate coverage. For instance, in a study of local newspaper coverage of 640 homicides in Columbus, Ohio, Richard Lundman found that murders involving a white female victim were more likely to be covered and received higher profile coverage, such as front-page stories. This pattern held even when he controlled for other factors that might influence newsworthiness, such as type of weapon used, age of those involved, neighborhood, and even how uncommon the murder is in terms of the gender, race, and social class of the victim and perpetrator.

The disproportionate coverage that crimes such as the abduction of Elizabeth Smart generate can lead to distortions in our perceptions of risk. While they are shocking, the crimes perpetrated against Elizabeth Smart and Jaycee Dugard are, in fact, quite rare. And middle-class white women are at very low risk of being the victims of violent crime in general.

But exposure to news coverage of these types of crimes may increase levels of fear among white women. Researchers at Florida State University looked at how TV coverage of the sexual assault and murder of two teenage girls in Houston affected viewers’ fear of crime, gathering their data in the immediate aftermath of the media frenzy about violent crime, gang violence, and related topics. They found that the only group whose fear of crime was influenced by watching TV stories about the murders was middle-aged white women. Non-white women, and all men, despite being objectively more likely to be victimized, did not become more fearful. The researchers suggest that white women substitute media coverage for direct experience of victimization. That is, generally research indicates that a person’s prior experience with crime (whether as a victim or knowledge of someone who was) is a strong predictor of their fear of becoming a victim; if you’ve been victimized once, it makes sense that you’d be more likely to think it could happen again. But white women who watch the news see a disproportionate number of white female victims, leading to a perception that white women are in much more danger than they actually are. The message here is that media coverage has real-world implications; the TV and print media stories we see can influence our perceptions of ourselves and the world around us. And insofar as white female victims are deemed most newsworthy, media coverage can skew our perceptions of how risky our lives are and which groups are most in need of increased protection from criminal behavior.

Comments 54

Manuela C. Amorim — August 23, 2011

Anonymous — August 23, 2011

Really interesting post. Reminds me of the issue of missing Aboriginal women in the Canadian context, and the relative lack of attention from media and law enforcement.

There's lots of information, but the Amnesty page on this is a start for anyone interested:
http://www.amnesty.ca/campaigns/sisters_overview.php

Yrro Simyarin — August 23, 2011

I wonder how that graph looks when you break it down by income.

As old Joe once said, "One death is a tragedy. A million deaths is just a statistic."

Crime is so localized to specific, generally minority, communities. Lower income communities that are getting completely torn apart by the drug war.

But because of that locality, it becomes too easy to write off crimes in those communities as normal, rather than newsworthy. Moreover, the rest of the country who are outside of those areas, and relatively safe, live such a different life that it is almost impossible to empathize with those victims.

You could very unfortunately print a headline of "young black man shot in the ghetto" almost every day... and the rest of the relatively safe country would barely notice, because they have no way to relate it back to their own lives.

Minor tangent here, but that's always been one of my frustrations in the guns rights movements. Because guns are a rural thing, it's largely populated by middle class white men (myself included). But as important as self defense rights are to me, they are nowhere close to as relevant as they are to a young mother taking the bus from her apartment on the bad side of town to her job in the suburbs. We lose sight of that far too often, because for those in real danger it has become too commonplace to be newsworthy.

Katylang — August 23, 2011

I don't disagree with this post, but I'll add another angle. Is it possible that the media covers "missing white women" so intensely *because* violent crime against them is more rare? Thus, it is more sensational/newsworthy? I'm not saying this makes it right/fair or is the only reason, but could be another factor here.

Kat — August 23, 2011

Err... yikes! I really think you should have made this two different posts or made the connection better:

1. The Chinese women are women of color who received the death penalty for murder or corruption or drug trafficking or enslaving other women sexually (trafficking in women). Since you have no been massively in favor on this blog in any way for either these crimes or had tons of posts against the death penalty in the United States, your post is racist against China. If it's a Chinese death penalty, even for horrendous crimes the death penalty is a "sacrifice" (WTF?!), but US death penalty= a okay.

2. Equating women who were murdered or raped by other men (the victims) with women who murdered is disgusting and distorting.

3. The whole "White women" point gets muddled quite a bit, since these are women of color. So an explanation of Black women as "unrape-able" and "unattractive" and more attention to White and East Asian women (East Asian women as deemed particularly attractive, docile etc) would have been important here.

4. While there is attention to White and East Asian women victims in certain circumstances ("missing"), rape victims of any color who are NOT missing and were raped by someone NOT a stranger to them (Elizabeth Smart), but report the crime, get merely suspicions and "it's you're fault", which is why rape is probably the last unpunished violent crime remaining (6% of rape convictions in the UK e.g.)

Molly — August 23, 2011

When I worked in the news I was told not to bother with stories about missing persons who were male or nonwhite. When a female was missing who was white I was told to write more. I was pretty shocked to find out what is and is not "news."

Anonymous — August 23, 2011

So yeah, I agree with Kat that this should be two separate posts. I'm not going to discuss the executed-Chinese-girls article because I really am not quite sure how to interpret it. Part of me finds it fetishistic what with the focus on natural beauty and disturbingly voyeuristic pictures of the women, and part of me feels as if the articles are trying to bring light to women's issues because so much of the writing focuses on the abusive treatment of the women by fathers, pimps, and boyfriends...and yet, many of these women are murderers! I'm not for the death penalty, but I just really don't know what to say about this in particular, especially since most of my knowledge of the death penalty has to do with the US.

As for the "missing white women syndrome" (which is most certainly a completely separate issue) I went to high school in a highly segregated north American city that was basically split down the middle white/black. I, a white women, was constantly told how I should never EVER go to the black part of town, how terribly dangerous it would be, for me especially, etc.

One time I did go to visit a friend, at 3 PM on a bright, sunny Saturday afternoon in a residential black neighborhood. I walked to his house alone the 5 blocks from the train station. Yes, I felt unsafe. Yes, people followed me. Yes, people stopped on the street to stare at me, ask me what on earth I was doing there, why my friend wasn't walking with me.

In reality? All of that attention (exactly what made me feel "unsafe") was actually protecting me. No one would hurt me, because absolutely EVERYONE was aware that a white girl was in the area, alone, and if anyone hurt me their neighborhood would suffer as much as me and my family.

C.L. — August 23, 2011

While I certainly agree that "Missing White Woman Syndrome" is a problem, there has long been a stigma associated with being a victim of crime, because "things like that don't happen to nice people". I know that, growing up, non-property crime against white, middle-class people (at least in the Texas of my youth) was something only discussed by adults in whispers when they thought children couldn't hear. I suspect that this stigma has led to a certain amount of underreporting of violent crime against white, middle class people to at least a limited extent.

These adults "ignored" obvious signs that white, middle-class men were abusing their wives or children, while gossiping about it in corners. Rape was NEVER discussed, and the social messaging was that "nice girls" (i.e., middle class white women) didn't "do things" (such as dress provocatively etc.) that would "get them raped" (because the pants python cannot be controlled it was always the woman's fault).

We didn't hear certain reports of crime against white, middle-class men, either. A man who was in a bar-fight was just engaging in a manly sport, but a man who "allowed himself to be mugged" might be considered unmanly, and certainly there were "never" any men who were rape victims.

Current news reporting sensationalizing crimes against pretty, young, white women are a problem. But I suspect that it grows out of that older stigma that said basically that if crime happened to you, it was because you deserved it somehow or were a bad person.

Greer Fox ("'Nice Girl': Social Control of Women through a Value Construct". Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society 2:4 (1977), pp. 805-817. http://www.jstor.org/pss/3173211 ) noted that women who comply with the favored appearance and behavior are (in theory) guaranteed safe passage in the world, while women who fail to comply are punished: i.e., those who are victims of crime *deserve* their victimization.

This is not a new thing, however. Lori Baker-Sperry and Liz Grauerholz ("The Pervasiveness and Persistence of the Feminine Beauty Ideal in Children's Fairy Tales." Gender and Society 17:5 (Oct 2003) pp. 711-726. http://www.umt.edu/sociology/faculty_staff/ellestad/documents/275_BakerSperryGrauerholz2003_s10.pdf ) note that Grimm's fairy tales use physical appearance as a marker for good vs. evil (mostly in reference to young women), with 31% of all stories associating beauty with goodness vs. 17% associating ugliness with evil. Conventional beauty -- being white and economically privileged -- is rewarded, unconventional appearances and ugliness are punished.

Anonymous — August 23, 2011

I think we need to look at the demographic makeup of the people who disseminate the news. They are probably disproportionately white and middle class, particularly in the editorial team. They choose what to report, and they report what they think matters to people, which is, ultimately, what matters to them and to people like them.

Caroline — August 23, 2011

The second half of this post reminds me of Law & Order, CSI and every other crime drama show* on daytime TV. Imaginary crime is even more sensationalized than reality.These shows would have you believe that 100% of murder victims are conventionally beautiful, middle class, able-bodied white women in their late twenties. Tune in every night to watch all the ways the same white girl can be raped and murdered!Do producers think that viewers are uncomfortable seeing men as victims? Do they think viewers will refuse to sympathize with a black, hispanic or asian victim? I realize that these shows are predictable, but I honestly don't understand. It's not hard to switch up who you cast as the corpse.*The only exception I've found is NCIS, since their show is based on crimes involving the U.S. navy and Marine Corps. So that involves (usually white) male victims.

Anonymous — August 23, 2011

In late 2002, when Laci Petersen disappeared, a car with several Hispanic males disappeared in Alameda CA (this happened with some frequency since it's an island and there are a few places where you could drive into the estuary). Not one news report discussed anyone looking for these men, but we were blasted with Laci's disappearance in the same general area of northern CA. In 2003 a crane operator bumped into the car that was underwater. They were able to piece together approximately what happened & it turns out that the families had been looking for the men, but and they figured out who it was in the car and that the men's families had been looking for them - but not a single report until they found the car.

Cocojams Jambalayah — August 23, 2011

But white women who watch the news see a disproportionate number of white female victims, leading to a perception that white women are in much more danger than they actually are. The message here is that media coverage has real-world implications; the TV and print media stories we see can influence our perceptions of ourselves and the world around us. And insofar as white female victims are deemed most newsworthy, media coverage can skew our perceptions of how risky our lives are and which groups are most in need of increased protection from criminal behavior.

While I agree with what Gwen said, I think that switching from the use of the pronoun "they" to the pronoun "our" can be problematic if Gwen meant for the target audience of her talk to be more than White women.

As part of a racial population that is more at risk than White woman, I believe that it's true that "media coverage can skew our perceptions of how risky our lives are and which groups are most in need of increased protection from criminal behavior". I would also add that the lack of media coverage can also shape our perceptions of how risky our lifes are etc. While I also use the pronoun "our" in those sentences, my "our" is different than Gwen's "our".

Anonymous — August 23, 2011

In response to all those saying "but the Chinese women weren't white:" there's more to missing white woman syndrome than skin color (which makes the name a misnomer, if only in a tiny minority of cases). It's okay for the media to bring attention to crimes against women of color (particularly Asian woman, but once in a great while, a black or Latina woman) IF she otherwise fits the role of a "perfect victim." She must be young (under 18 preferred, and absolutely under age 25), she must be conventionally attractive aside from being nonwhite (no one cares about fatties or girls with acne scars), she must be generally accepted to be book smart and a good citizen (which is why they are usually under 18; its easy to say "she is worthwhile because she get's straight As and is captain of the cheerleading team"), she's almost certainly middle class, and she needs to be perceived as virginal and well-behaved (something often expected of middle class teenage girls who are book-smart, according to people who've never met middle-class teenage girls who get good grades). The reason this often gets shortened to "missing white woman syndrome" is that occasionally, the rest of the "good victim" qualifiers can be ignored if the victim is white; we still care more about a working class party girl if she's white, young, and pretty than we do about "perfect victims" who are nonwhite. And even when the deaths/assaults of people of color, men, or especially men of color, are reported, there is always a tinge of victim blaming; I know a young Hispanic boy who, at all of 14 years old, was murdered. He WAS a "perfect victim," and had probably never done anything more criminal than chewing gum in class, yet the news all went on about "gang activity" and so forth, even though there was no evidence that he was in a gang or had pissed off gang members. Sure, his disappearance and murder were reported, but they still tried to twist it into "what did the victim do to GET HIMSELF killed" as opposed to "what sick freak kills a 14 year old kid."

Maeghan — August 23, 2011

These are two interesting topics (execution of women in China and the sensationalism of "missing white women") but I am confused about how they are related. I can't see a connection at all, besides that both topics include women.

links for 2011-08-23 « Jet Grrl — August 23, 2011

Gilbert Pinfold — August 23, 2011

What the charts don't show is that 'White women are safer than they think they are'. What is missing from these charts is an identification of the perpertrators. Let's say those committing the crimes are an unknown third force, say 'Beautiful Chinese women' of yore. Could it be that these simply have a taste for Black victims, so that White women may not, after all, be far safer staying away from Black neighbourhoods?

Talinka — August 24, 2011

Uhm, what?

I'm going to call you out on your USA-centrism on this one. You really should have split this into two ore more posts.

First of all, 'sacrifice'? These women were all executed after found guilty of various crimes - all the very serious issues with an unjust Chinese legal system and society as well as the death penalty notwithstanding, how did you even get to the thought of describing this as their sacrifices? For what, for who, how?

Also, you only use the story of these Chinese women as an immediate point of departure to a post about race relations and crime in the US. If you want to talk about those things, why don't you just do that instead of trying to make an incredibly weak link to a potentially very complicated story about women, law, punishment and society a place very much removed from the US social reality.

The way you have constructed your narrative in this post, not only do you seriously misrepresent the faiths of these women in a border-line orientialistic manner. You also only brign them up in order to make a point about other people, reducing their own histories so that you can talk about the much more importt Americans.

Not. Cool.

This blog brings up many intersting subjects for debate, but at the same time you have huge problems with they way you insenstively and arrogantly discuss peoples and social issues outside of North America. This one is just one of many, but a particularly enraging one.

Jennifer — August 25, 2011

I find your treatment of the executed Chinese women article very disappointing and racist.

First, I'm not sure if it's appropriate to link to this article (especially without a trigger warning) - the content was very disturbing, given the graphic images of the women close to or after execution. The writing in that link was very intrusive, fetishist and glorified violence against women. I understand the point you are trying to make about women's beauty and treatment by the media, but why link to such a troubling/sensationalist article without even analyzing or contextualizing it? It trivializes the women, their abuse and their crimes.

Secondly, I found the way you framed this link racist. "These women are apparently important not because of their sacrifice, or because of what they say about Chinese politics, but because they’re beautiful." is not a relevant or accurate statement. These women were all executed for non-political crimes such as murder, drug trafficking, etc. China is definitely guilty of many human rights abuses and we may disagree with the severity of their punishments, but there were no "sacrifices" or speaking out against "Chinese politics" by the women here. Is your statement drawn from the view that Chinese women are obedient and willing to sacrifice, and are automatically victims (even when they're proven criminals)? Is this an automatic reaction that any Chinese government law/action has to violate human rights and be related to political prisoners? In today's media, many people justify/mask their racism against Muslim groups by saying (assuming) that they mistreat their women. Unfortunately, I feel your writing here demonstrates the same underlying slant against China.

Guy Nichols — August 25, 2011

It's not that white women are victims, it's the fact the media wants to state all women or victims, are weak, not as smart or aware of what is going on n their surroundings and unable to handle serious pressure.
In other woard the media is trying to say are like they were in old movies and TV shows with the constant referenses toblondes and red heads such as Marilyn Monroe and Lucy ball being sexy middle class or rich airheads. since the begining of movies an story boks white males have always been portrayed as smart, brave, heroes saving the day against their alter ego white man, while people of other ethnic males are always their sidekicks.
Xena the Warrior Princess was a strong brave fighter but was hinted to being a lesbian always saving her blonder smaller weaker female sidekick/companion.

Crystal Tao — August 26, 2011

I am citing the beginning of your post:"These women are apparently important not because of their sacrifice, or because of what they say about Chinese politics, but because they’re beautiful."

Now, let me ask - did YOU actually read the post you are referring to?
Which of these women was a sacrificed hero or was saying anything about Chinese politics?

Hoosier — August 26, 2011

Im in Bloomington, IN and right now there are posters everywhere for the missing Lauren Spierer. Lauren is a 20y/o student of Indiana Univ. and was last seen in June. On July 4 a body was found about an hour north of here- in Fall Creek in Indianapolis. July 4 was on a Monday so the autopsy was to be performed on Tuesday, July 5. So Wednesday I pick up a Indy paper- I find mention of the autopsy in the SECOND SECTION. Turned out the body in the creek belonged to an African American woman and not Lauren or another white woman who was missing at the time. That is actually the last I heard of the Fall Creek body.

tenderhooligan — August 28, 2011

The comments below (re. apparent conflation of two issues) are correct but I'll accept for the sake of argument that you were simply inspired by one issue to write about the other.

WWS is very pervasive and certainly affects fear of crime and fear of victimisation. I'm rather more concerned at the moment about the ways in which WWS and its variants affect media coverage of missing children and the potential impact that WWS (and, again, its variants) may have on police resources and attention. The most glaring example of this in recent times in Europe has been the massive media and police attention on Madeline McCann, who fits the happy middle-class, pretty little white girl criteria. There are countless other missing children who do not tick the WWS boxes and who have been ignored.

Also concerning are the ways in which women of colour who have been victims of violent and sexual offences are treated by the media in comparison to white women. It's all part of WWS and our culture of privilege.

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[...] and pictured the criminal as a person of color before the newscast even let you know. Ever been unaware of the numbers of black women who are murdered or kidnapped in this country each year, without receiving the mass news coverage that white women do… I think you get my [...]

welcome to post racial america, pt 2: the hunger games and the value of black life | writing to transgress — April 2, 2012

[...] of missing people are PoC, while the mainstream news remains saturated with stories of beautiful missing white women. with these attitudes toward black life, it’s no wonder that black students, while comprising [...]

Thevinend — May 23, 2012

I thought I kinda knew the answer why the drawn out missing kids, day in, day out. Why? Perhaps to overshadow the reality 2,200 children go missing EVERY DAY. 800,000 a year!!!!!!
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[...] of what we are taught–stories of missing, kidnapped or sexually abused girls (at least white girls) get far more news coverage and mass sympathy than stories of boy victims. Little girls are [...]

[…] The use of media is ingenious with the subliminal manipulation effect it has on people. I myself haven’t realized what the media has done to my intellect until I have taken this class. It is an eye opening event to see how easy it is for the media to manipulate and control how people think and live. With reading this article it makes me realize that there is women of color missing in the media that have been victimized in one respect or the other. Does that make me a racist, some would think so and if i purposely understood that this was happening then yes, I would be just as wrong and a racist as the media. It is shameful to think I can be so controlled. It helps to be educated about every circumstance and happening there is not to fall under the medias grip, but we are human and can’t possibly know about everything even though we want to. There was an incident years ago about a young girl of color that I remember that was in the news because she escaped from someone that was trying to kidnap her. It was sensationalized because the girl was smart in how she was able to escape. But other than I don’t see news about women of color. It is sad we all deserve equal attention we all are important. http://thesocietypages.org/socimages/2011/08/23/missing-white-woman-syndrome-and-fear-of-crime/ […]

welcome to post racial america, pt 2: the hunger games and the value of black life | transgressive compost — December 18, 2015

[…] innocence, its no surprise that the mainstream news remains saturated with stories of beautiful missing white women while more than 40% of missing persons are people of color. with these attitudes toward black […]